Prep Baseball: Byron triumphs in long day of play

BYRON - Six hours, 18 innings and three clutch diving catches later, Byron’s longest baseball day ended with the Tigers in firm command of the Big Northern West race.

“I almost fell asleep at one point in the dugout,” Byron’s Dan Lowe said.

After edging Mendota 7-5, the Tigers outlasted Rock Falls 5-4 in 11 innings in a makeup game to move to 16-3 (5-0 in the BNC West).

Lowe drove in the winning run with a one-out, bases-loaded bunt single and pitched the first seven innings, stranding 11 base runners, including leaving the bases loaded three innings in a row.

“I put us in tough situations, but my defense behind me got me out of it,” Lowe said. “We had one error in 11 innings, which teams never do in high school. I put all my trust in them.”

Austin Carlson, Dylan Garbutt and Nate Peterson all made diving catches in the outfield. Garbutt’s catch left the bases loaded in the sixth. Peterson’s started an inning-ending double play and kept Rock Falls from scoring the winning run in the 10th.

The outfield stars were fitting on a day they stood in fog, looking like Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams.

“It was the oddest thing. I was thinking ghosts might come out and play with us,” Lowe said.

Rock Falls (7-7, 2-3) had won seven in a row after an 0-6 start and outhit Byron 11-7. But the Rockets also made four errors, walked 12 Tigers and failed to tag up at third for what would have been the winning run on Peterson’s catch.

“We made some mistakes we can’t make and gave them some runs,” Rock Falls coach Donnie Chappell said. “The game shouldn’t have gone that long. We kind of gave it away, but we’ve gotten better.”

Dennis Reedy threw four scoreless innings in relief of Lowe to earn the win.

“Dennis came in and shut the door,” Peterson said. “Rock Falls, they are a great team. I love playing against them. But we played great defense and it all came together. We just out-battled them this time.”

Byron’s long day began with a 7-5 victory over Mendota. The Tigers led 4-1 until Juan Gonzalez (3-for-3), Jerron Robinson, Garrett Zinke and Evan Schultz led off the fifth with four consecutive hits and all scored to give Mendota a 5-4 lead. Nate Peterson singled and scored in the bottom of the inning to tie it for Byron and the Tigers then scored two in the sixth to win after Tyler Nunez hit a leadoff double and, with two out, Ben Reibel followed with an RBI double and scored on Tyler Rowland’s triple.